Monthly Archives: July 2014

A CI manufacturer won a court case even though theirCI product was defective and had to be recalled. Andthey never told the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about this defective product. How did they win? The Arizona federal judge said that there are no FDA rules about defective CI’s, and so, this manufacturer was lucky. Yet, the judge warned the manufacturer that this lawsuit could be refiled with revised paperwork!

— captions valuable to a hearing company

TV captions are very important to Critical Mention.It is a hearing company that follows media newsfor its hearing clients. Much of the media news are captioned, not voice! It is not the first timea deaf device has helped a hearing company. Inthe early eighties, a television station inNebraska bought 1,000 deaf TV decoders fromTDI. Why? The crop farmers in Nebraska needed thetext captions to get agriculture weather updates!So if we say hearing people depend on deaf devices,it is not a joke.

— a famous deaf entertainer with a scary name

The word Asphyxia is scary. It means choking the neckto prevent the person from breathing. Well, there isa famous entertainer whose name is Asphyxia. She is fromAustralia and performs shows for the Grimstones, which is a circus group that travels all over the world. And she is deaf! She has been deaf all her life. She performs everything – puppets, trapeze, hula hoops, etc. Why Asphyxia? Do not know! Anyway, she is now writing a bookabout her life.

Two hospitals in Texas are being sued by Texas Civil Rights Project. What did they do wrong? The doctors at these hospitals touched, tapped, poked and prodded their deaf patients. All of these were done without any interpreters around – leaving deaf patients upset and confused as to why no one was around to explainwhat and why the doctors were doing on their bodies.

— Deaf Soap Opera or Deaf Family Friendly TV show

The ABCFamily network is supposed to show only familyfriendly TV programs. Yet there are accusations thatthe Switched at Birth is more of a Soap Opera thanas a Family Friendly TV show. They are saying thatif it is really a soap opera then it should be movedto these daytime soap opera channels. There were manyplots on the Switched at Birth episodes that are notappropriate for viewers of the ABCFamily network.

— a deaf passenger on a bus

A bus driver, in a small British town, gave a passengerand her two young daughters, a very hard time due to herdeafness. She bought discounted fares for her under-age daughters, yet the driver would not accept it and forced her to pay full fares. When the passenger told the driver she was deaf and to please communicate slowly, the driver laughed and put a speakerphone on her ear, claiming she can hear the loud voices. She filed a formal complaint with the bus company officials. The company apologized for the incident and said they were investigating the whole thing. The company was lucky she is not planninglegal action.

The Comic-Con convention took place in San Diego.It is for fans of comics that play out theirfantasties. The key event is the outdoors ZombieWalk where costumed people have fun. But theycrowded the intersection, blocking a car witha deaf family in it. No cops were around to handlethe parade traffic. The deaf driver honked his horn;suddenly the Zombie Walkers jumped on the car hood.The frightened deaf family felt threatened, andsped away, accidentally hit a woman. The police nowis trying to sort it all out. For that reason, thedaily Zombie Walks were canceled.

— an employer hires the deaf for a big reason

ULTRA Testing is a software company. They want to hirethe disabled (the deaf, the blind and the autistic).Sympathy? No. They say the blind hear things better than the non-blind. They say the autistic are oftensmarter than the non-autistic. The deaf? They saydeaf see things better than the hearing!

— Gallaudet in a Switched at Birth TV plot!

The Switched at Birth’s Isn’t What You Thinkepisode on TV has a Gallaudet plot. Gallaudethas accepted Daphne Vasquez for admission.Her father was not very happy about it, preferringthat she enroll at Northwestern University forits pre-med program. DeafDigest wonders if theSwitched at Birth writers do not realize thatBiology is one of Gallaudet’s strongest departments!

17-year old Princess Pura is a deaf Filipino woman.Yes, Princess is her first name. She entered a localpageant for the first time. Nervous, she made somemistakes on the stage, and the crowd booed her. Notgiving up, she entered the next pageant and qualifiedfor the final pageant – the “Queen of the Philippines.” That she was able to enter this final pageant after being booed for the first time has become her sweetest revenge! The pageant people are already excited about her.

— Sorenson’s owners have filed bankruptcy

Some months ago, Sorenson seemed to have escapedbankruptcy, and we thought things were looking upfor this relay provider. It was just learned thatSorenson’s two co-owners – GTCR LLC and Madison Dearborn, both Chicago private equity companies,have filed bankruptcy, saying Sorenson’s heavydebt is killing them ($1.28 billion in debt payable February 2015). What will happen toSorenson? We do not know.

— homework to help the deaf during a convention

This week there is a convention of the National Court Reporters Association that is taking place inSan Francisco. These conventioners are captionersand CART operators. It may be very possible that someof the realtime TV programs you are watching thisweek have been captioned by these conventioners,using their own captioning equipment in their hotelrooms! Some of them work between convention workshops,panels and social events. This is homework.

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